Falling Snow - femme fatale, Revlon, essence

It's snowing! That's what I think about this mani anyway! :D

[femme fatale Shimmering Snowcap over Revlon Peach Nectar
Tips: essence Boho Chic]

So this mani started out looking like this...

[femme fatale Shimmering Snowcap over Revlon Peach Nectar]

This is femme fatale's Shimmering Snowcap layered over Revlon's Peach Nectar. I've already reviewed Shimmering Snowcap yesterday. :)

[femme fatale Shimmering Snowcap over Revlon Peach Nectar
Tips: essence Boho Chic]

I then added essence's Boho Chic to the tips freehand, mainly because I had just bought Boho Chic at that time and I wanted to try it! Boho Chic is a medium peach creme with small gold flakes. It is nowhere as dark as what you see in my photos, but apparently my camera can't photograph it properly against lighter colours.

[femme fatale Shimmering Snowcap over Revlon Peach Nectar
Tips: essence Boho Chic]

This photo came out a little blurry and you can see the blue-gold glitter in Shimmering Snowcap so much better here.

White on Whte - femme fatale Shimmering Snowcap, Orly Au Champagne

I'm going to review this really gorgeous nail polish!

[femme fatale Shimmering Snowcap over Orly Au Champagne]

This is femme fatale Shimmering Snowcap layered over Orly Au Champagne. Shimmering Snowcap is utterly gorgeous! There is an insane variety of white glitter in this one: hex, diamond, bar, squares of all sizes. Then there's the translucent small blue glitter that shifts from pale blue to bright gold.

The consistency of femme fatale's nail polishes is amazing. Even with the abundance of glitter, the formula isn't gloopy at all and it's easy to get a nice variety of glitter on your nails. I didn't have to pick anything out.

[femme fatale Shimmering Snowcap over Orly Au Champagne + bottle]

I also like the bottle and the classy print on it. :)

[femme fatale Shimmering Snowcap over Orly Au Champagne]

Obligatory blurry photo so you can see the gold squares flashing!

After this, I realised that it might be a little difficult to see the white glitter when paired with a white base. So I did another mani which you'll see tomorrow!

Floral Eyes - Essie Super Bossa Nova, Konad Special Polish White

A mani which turned out a bit odd! From afar it sorta looks like little monsters with black beady eyes, oh dear...

[Beady little floral eyes!]

 I think I did this one at the beginning of spring and was feeling doing something bright and slightly retro... Hm

[Bottle to nail: Essie Super Bossa Nova (2 coats)]

I started with a base of Essie Super Bossa Nova from the Summer Collection. Who doesn't love some bossa nova! =) Super Bossa Nova is a bright pink creme with a bright fuchsia shimmer.

[2 coats: Essie Super Bossa Nova]

Like most Essies, gorgeous formula and excellent pigmentation. I think I used two coats here but you could get away with one careful coat (depending on the length of your nails).

[Base: Essie Super Bossa Nova (2 coats); Stamping: Konad Special Polish White]

I then stamped over it with a floral pattern from one of my Bundle Monster plates, using Konad Special Polish in White. Then I stuck on small black rhinestones using clear polish... might not have been the best addition, but oh well! I seem to do this alot... there appears to be a great divide between what I imagine when starting a mani... and what appears after I'm done! =S

Icy Magic in Eutopia - Revlon, Jordana, LA Girl

This is a mani from September. Every layer of polish here was interesting!

[Three coats of Revlon Icy Violet]

Revlon Icy Violet has a dull plum base and a strong blue shimmer. The blue shimmer is pretty dense in this polish, which makes the blue flash pretty strong. The first time I tried this polish, it was a bit 'meh' to me, but the second time round, I did like it quite a bit better. The pinky nail has two coats of nail polish instead of three, and so the colour is a little lighter too.

Then I decided to try Jordana Magenta Magic over Icy Violet.

[Jordana Magenta Magic over Revlon Icy Violet]

Ah, Jordana polishes are so worth their cost when you can buy them for $2.99 online. :)  Magenta Magic has medium sized and fine hexagonal bright magenta glitter in a clear base. The glitter is really dense so it could be opaque in three coats. It really is so much prettier than my photos have managed to capture. This mani had no topcoat over it, so it's not very smooth.

The last picture is my standard blurry-for-shiny photo!

My fingers itched again, and I tried LA Girl Glitter Addict Eutopia over the rest of the mani:

[LA Girl Glitter Addict Eutopia over
Jordana Magenta Magic over Revlon Icy Violet]

Little bit strange, but I liked it! Eutopia is a medium sized and fine hexagonal navy blue glitter in a clear base. I quite love the colour. This is a glitter that will never build to complete opacity, but it makes for very nice layering.

Shifty Shade - Mode Arsonist, Lynderella Happy HoloDaze

I posted a while ago about getting glitter bleed in my bottle of Lynderella Happy HoloDaze here. So since I had it on my desk then, I swiped it over my mani at the time.

[Not quite Christmas!]

While not as Christmas-sy as originally intended, I still think it's a pretty cool combination!

[Bottle to nail: Mode Arsonist (2 coats)]

I started with a base of Mode Arsonist. I spotted this beauty in the local pharmacy but kept putting it back in the Mode bin because... I have so many red polishes! So many red polishes with gold shimmer, even! But I'm so so glad I finally caved and picked this gorgeous polish up! In the bottle, the shimmer looks slightly green at extreme angles, but this isn't visible on the nail.

[2 coats: Mode Arsonist]

The base is a deep warm red, almost jelly-like and the shimmer is really obvious even on the nail. Opaque in one careful coat, but I used two to deepen the colour. Vampy without being too far on the black side! Also... I thought that was an awesome name...

[Glitter bleed: Lynderella Happy HoloDaze]

So, here's my bottle of Happy HoloDaze... You can see how the green hexes are pretty much teal now. The clear base has gone a rather unattractive limey hue. The square glitter is still green though!

[Base: Mode Arsonist (2 coats); Glitter: Lynderella Happy HoloDaze (1 coat)]

Dabbled on a coat of Happy HoloDaze on each nail... still gorgeous! Just different~ =)

Delicious Purple - Coco Allure Succulent Lustre

I'm trying to catch up by posting some old photos! I got Coco Allure Succulent Lustre awhile back, but I'm finally posting it here!

[Three coats of Coco Allure Succulent Lustre]

The polish is very hard to describe, so I'm going to use some of Coco Allure's description: "Succulent Lustre is fine multiple colored color shifting glitters in a semi-sheer purple base - The polish has purple, blue, violet, and green color shifts."

There is fine purple glitter, there's fine green-blue-purple colour-shifting glitter, and medium hex purple-blue-green colour-shifting glitter. There's a little spark of pink-red in there too! The consistency is a little bit gloopy, but nothing a little thinner won't solve. It's wonderfully opaque at three coats, and the different sized colour-shifting glitter makes everything soooo pretty.

The next photos were taken indoors:

[Three coats of Coco Allure Succulent Lustre]

The last is the usual blurry photo to show you the shininess! How shiny is this??

The fine blue-green glitter is hard to see without blurry photos, but this not-very-good photo manages to capture some of it:

[Three coats of Coco Allure Succulent Lustre]

Interesting, isn't it?

This is one complex, colour-shifting glitter polish! I have to admit, out of the all the Coco Allure polishes I bought, this is my favourite, and objectively, it's the best in quality. The others with hex glitter aren't very good (a bit curly). If I have the time, I'll review those too.

Double Holo - Kleancolor Holo Chrome, Layla Hologram Effect Flash Black

Happy Monday! I have a double holo french today using two very different but equally lovely holo polishes. =)

[Double holo... ALL THE WAY!]

I had these two on my desk and knew I wanted to use a holographic polish but couldn't decide, so I ended up using both!

[Bottle to nail: Kleancolor Holo Chrome (2 coats)]

This is Kleancolor Holo Chrome, which is... not chrome. =p It's a gorgeous blue jelly base with large holo particles giving a scattered effect.

[2 coats: Kleancolor Holo Chrome]

... I'm not sure why I took so many photos... but have a look at them anyway! Holo Chrome is a lovely polish on its own - great application, I think it takes between 2-3 coats depending on how opaque you want it.

[Bottle to nail: Layla Hologram Effect in Flash Black (tips); Base: Kleancolor Holo Chrome (2 coats)]

I then tipped my nails with one coat of Layla Hologram Effect in Flash Black, and absolutely insanely linear holographic polish. It's not exactly black though, because the holo particles give it more of a grey/silver look.

[Base: Kleancolor Holo Chrome (2 coats); Tips: Layla Hologram Effect in Flash Black (1 coat)]

You can definitely see the difference between a scattered and linear holo with this mani. I think both of them are great in their own right!

White Opal - Hits Lambada, Ulta3 Crystallina

These are old photos of a more subtle mani I was wearing, but still interesting!

[Hits Lambada over Ulta3 Crystallina]

This is Hits Lambada over Ulta3 Crystallina. Lambada is a multicoloured flakey in a clear base. The flakes are predominantly green-orange, with a hint of blue. Against a white base, it's not startlingly bright, but it still catches the light in a really pretty way. While it looks uneven, the surface is actually smooth, but the way some flakes sit on the nail can make them look a little bumpy.

[Hits Lambada over Ulta3 Crystallina]

Pretty, yes? :D  And still somewhat work safe!

Here's a picture of the base on its own:

[Ulta3 Crystallina]

That's lovely on its own. Crystallina is a soft white with a gold shimmer. This is two coats of it.

Shopping in Sydney - Essence, OPI, Jordana, Sally Hansen, Revlon

Okie dokes, here are some photos I took on my mobile recently, so apologies for the quality. I've left them a bit larger so if you click on them you can see everything a bit clearer! Let's get on to the latest Shopping in Sydney post!

An almost complete look at the new range of Essence Colour n Go - photo taken at Priceline Broadway last week! Disappointed that it's not the complete range of nail polish available overseas... 

A not-quite-new-ish Cosmo Cosmetics on George Street - I think it's on the same block as the Galeries Victoria, just further up north.

Revlon and Jordana, including the Jordana Glitters range. 

OPIs from $7 (for shatters) to $13... I spotted the Spiderman collection among others. Saw some OPI My Private Jet but not sure which version (I don't own either). 

Various nail art supplies also available...I didn't end up buying anything because it's cheaper to buy lots online, but if you're in a rush or desperately need something RIGHT NOW, this may be a good option.

So, in general, lots of Sally Hansen, Jordana, OPI and Revlon. Not just nail polish, but various other bits and bobs of makeup, bodycare and fragrance too. They also have brands like MAC and Korres... However, I've seen online grumbles of either old makeup stock or doubtful authenticity so exercise caution, especially with makeup items other than nail polish...!!!

Hope that helps! =)